Dialogue concerning Marketing Strategist at HQ

Sounds like just the job for a Marketing Strategist! :wink:

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Each year Anarchapulco grows leaps and bounds ā€¦ you may not like the video they did for that project, but the results theyā€™ve gotten have been dramatic ā€¦ thatā€™s not saying theyā€™d use the same strategy unless they are one-trick-ponies ā€¦ I donā€™t know ā€¦ but with what Iā€™ve seen, theyā€™ve done well and thatā€™s an indication that they do know what they are doing.

With regard to their low prices, I suspect those are boilerplate simple and optionless baskets. I suspect that if a full strategy was to be worked out and many options piled on, then it would be much higher priced ā€¦ they are also maybe based in central America and I hear wages are pretty low there.

Thanks for the insights Jim

In this project we have of course time to gear up the marketing. As someone else mentioned (@VaCrunch) the real marketing comes when there is a product to market. Now is the time to be gearing up and getting all the ducks in a row and time for ā€œtest runsā€ of small scale marketing to hone the skills on. I do not see this appointment as anything negative and well worth it, even if outside consultants are used along the way.

Once SAFE goes into release candidate stage there is going to be a fair amount of self selling because hopefully the APPs will be drawing people in.

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Oh yeah, I am aware that the treatment on it may well be very intentional for the targets of the project. I think the ā€œMake Anarchy Great Againā€ tag line probably points to the (quite niche and obvs. not me) segment they are after.

Itā€™s funny though, videos in that janky-but-bombasitic-meme genre are either deliberately constructed for that particular vibe, or are just the result of crappy production; itā€™s very difficult to differentiate the two :joy:

Yeah, again, just reiterate, it was a commentary on the pricing strategy, and what Iā€™d take from that. But ultimately itā€™s about results, and if their clients are happy, and they have a sustainable business, then happy-days.

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With the in-house approach you also have to make sure that knowledge is documented or at least no too much knowledge that only 1 person knows. Because if that person leaves the company, the knowledge is also gone.
But Iā€™m sure that is well covered by MaidSafe. See for instance the Luffa platform.

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Nothing Iā€™ve seen supports this claim.

No, thatā€™s not natural to think that. Agencies may have training in certain industries or a flair for thinking outside the box. But mostly they are often skilled at finding a new way to skin that cat.

Clearly Maidsafe has not been successful with outside marketing firms because Maidsafe is not clear on what Maidsafe is marketing. Hiring a marketing person and expecting them to solve this is not likely.

The real marketing talent is not looking for a salaried day job. The real marketing talent is looking to build a clientele and a portfolio of mindblowing campaigns.

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Although a generalisation, I agree.

Jim, just one additional point Iā€™d like to make here.

The recent launch of a new website is - as far as I can tell - yet to be completed. This was taken from a vendor who was not performing or couldnā€™t - for whatever reason - perform. From what I can gather, work on this new site has been pushed aside. Is this the case here with the recently launched site? This is what happens when a company tries to do too much.

I commented recently that they did not include the team members bios on the new website. I was quickly shown evidence by a Maidsafe team member that the team member bios were on another website. A website that - as I understand from recent posts - is to be retired. Then I see your team fixing issues on a website that is to be retired. Is this the case? Are resources being expended on a website that is going to be shutdown?

Websites, marketing, and other crucial brand and product packaging is just as important as all the lines of code written in the more than a decade Maidsafe has been around.

Maidsafe doesnā€™t get a second chance to make a first impression. There are no bug bounties for amateur night marketing wannabes.

Maidsafe has no choice but to hit a home run.

Edit: i did not pay attention to the fact the Maidsafe website would be retained and used for admin purposes so it was necessary to fix issues.

Just so you know.

This is the Maidsafe Companyā€™s website as mentioned elsewhere. And the appropriate place for company employeeā€™s pictures etc.

How many websites are you talking of? The recently launched one is the one I know that was worked on after getting rid of the company building it previously. And will from time to time have work done on it.

What is this other website that is for the SAFE network?

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I see what you are referring to and recall that there is a difference between the sites. I initially took this to mean the new site was going to replace the .net site. I also see that it was stated the .net site would be corporate identity.

I do recall reading somewhere recently that .net site would be retired.?. phased out? . those were not the words used however. Iā€™ll go back and reread.

The new Safenet website is also an appropriate place to display the founder and the team. In fact it may be more appropriate because anyone interested in digging into the Safenet will surely expect to see developer profiles, GitHub links, street cred, etc. Certainly support staff and administration may not be crucial to reveal. Although I would chose to show them all off.

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I have referred to the .net site as the ā€œpreviousā€ site. My bad. Everything related to this discussion is born from me thinking the .net site was being replaced. My quick interpretation of Dugs comment

My quick and MISinterpretation of Dugs post.

Edit: Safenetwork.tech

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Yeah it has but I think itā€™s also a lot of word of mouth too. Itā€™s kind of an exclusive group that is growing with the Silicon Valley/bitcoin/libertarian types which seems like it really markets itself. I didnā€™t even watch the video because the thumbnail turned me off. People like Brian Sovryn and Stephanie Murphey talk about on their podcasts as well not to mention the dollar vigilante guy who hosts it has a decent following of a very niche (yet probably consolidating) group. I personally donā€™t think the marketing team has much to do with it.

We will have to agree to disagree there. Taste is subjective. For me the video is very fun and inspiring and has motivated me to go to Anarchapulco as soon as I am able to do so.

Taste being subjective is kinda the point of having a broadly aimed marketing group longer term for Safe Network - although not right now as only certain niche audiences will be interested ATM.

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I couldnā€™t chose what comment to reply to and jump in on this thread so starting here.
Fully agree that in house is best (saying that, I am currently an in house marketing guy soā€¦).

In a previous job they relied heavily on agencies for everything and the problem is that they will never really spend the time to fully understand the business model unless it is really simple. You are a client to them and they want to do their job, get paid and go home.

Some will say they were just poor agencies but they were in the top 10 for revenue in Europe each year so they canā€™t be that badā€¦

If you get someone in house you can basically transform them in to a brand ambassador and then the marketing they put out there will sell it to anyone that reads it. You want someone who doesnā€™t fully understand it but then learns the ins and outs so they then know how to explain it to others who donā€™t quite get it.

I also agree that the marketing should be done in stages.
For instance, there would be no point right now in going full on with the marketing as it is not ready for full release yet. Right now the focus should be on getting people like us, the people who are interested, getting those people pumped and excited. Building an army of loyal ā€œfansā€, and building excitement amongst coders etc

Your marketing efforts then grow with the product and get bigger as it gets bigger and by the time it comes for full release your marketing is out there selling it to the general public!

Getting that person in the door and making them live and breathe everything MadeSafe is by far the most important first step for that!

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I agree with everything that has been discussed on this board. In my experience, best is to have an inhouse marketing resource + an outside firm (like Ideas by Nature). Komodo is no starting to use them.

Where companies fail is when they only have inside marketing and not the channels that these marketing firms bring to the table. Or they go only with marketing firms and these marketing firms dont know the product well. So the message fails.

However, if you have your own marketing person who understands the product and can give these marketing firms the content. Thats a lethal combination. They have much far reaching reach then any one of us. (In my opinion). The community is working hard too. Lets work on all fronts - inhouse marketing person, a decent marketing firm + community.

Focus only on spreading awareness about the strenght of the platform - not inviting users to start using it. Not until the product is fully ready. Right now, just promote awareness and create excitement about whats been built so that they really keep getting more and more excited until ā€˜final releaseā€™ of the product - fully tested and usable.

During Beta, start the tasks of exploring corporate partnerships. Thats good for business and will also add an additional layer of awareness (and tremendous credibility) if firms start looking at us.

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I can see where you come from, and agree with you in a way, i.e. it makes most sense to do marketing when you have something working.

But in reality, a long running project, especially one that is exploratory to its nature, will need people and minds. It is hard to reach a lot of people, it is hard to reach the right people, and to then be able to get their attention (and keep it!).
Getting reviews of papers, getting pull requests on code (even if the first ones were things already planned to be fixed), getting creative expansive minds who see new ways or just can do more with the old ways, every new person every new angle adding to that increasing vibe. That is a project succeeding.

I mean, a project building a network, should know that the success is another sort of network :wink: all of the people who have been reached and who have gotten an understanding and an awoken interest.

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Bingo, excellent point.

The problem the client (Maidsafe) has no idea how to crystalize their product. Yet they plan to hire a marketing person, train them in technology, and make that newly transformed marketing/developer/coder/computerscientist put together a marketing plan. Never mind the difficulties this new marketing hire will face processing all thatā€™s required, but they will have the added pressure of answering to Csuite, who themselves have not been successful at summarizing what the value proposition is. The new marketing person will spend a year or two learning his new trade as a coder, computer scientist and likey quit.

Maidsafe can spend some time figuring out what problem they solve, how it impacts the world, package it as a solution, and give it to a competent marketing firm to put a ribbon on it and propogate.

Have a look at some of the recent convoluted descriptions of how this should be marketed. Painful.

Edit: simply put. hereā€™s the problem, hereā€™s the solution. Which problem that the Safenet solves, appeals to the largest audience?

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I agree with the above. Thats why the best marketing effort right now is just making people aware of what is being built and the problem it aims to solve and keep the awareness/excitement going.

Do not present any half working solutions thinking those will prompt interest. It will go the other way. Unless those half working solutions are being showcased to the development community - there are other mediums to do it.

I also strongly feel that words like ā€œUNHACKABLEā€ etc prompt interest and force audience to peek into it. If any tech savvy person wants to bring up a .01% probabablistic event - then fine - let him worry about it. Atleast for the majority of the community (and potential users) - strong words like UNHACKABLE etc are the ones that are going to get most attention. I also feel not to bring too much attention to uncensored etc. Regular users care about hacking more. People who worry about censorship will find out this network automatically. But putting attention to it on the amrketing plan may bring iin more attention from censorhip bodies etc. So dont touch upon it until the network is launched. Once launched, it will be autonomous.

Words like ā€œUNHACKABLEā€ etc is what people and corporations care about.